Mulcair faces committee grilling over NDP satellite offices

After coming under fire for using House of Commons funds to hire employees at NDP offices outside Ottawa, Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair is set to be grilled by a parliamentary committee over the issue.

The Conservatives, using some procedural manoeuvres Thursday morning, managed to get the House of Commons to agree to compel Mulcair to testify at the Procedure and House Affairs Committee.

“I move that the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be instructed to consider the matter of accusations of the 0fficial Opposition’s improper use of House of Commons resources for partisan purposes,” said Tory MP Blake Richards, “and that the leader of the Opposition be ordered to appear as a witness at a televised meeting of the committee to be held no later than May 16, 2014.”

Richards’ motion wasn’t given unanimous consent in the House of Commons. But a specific provision in House of Commons rules allows for a question to be put to the floor again — by a member of cabinet — and in this case, a slightly-reworded version of the motion came from Labour Minister Kellie Leitch.

House rules state that if 25 or more members don’t give consent, the motion can’t pass — but there were not enough NDP members in the chamber to put the motion down. The motion was adopted and Mulcair will be facing the committee within the next couple of months.

The NDP has been criticized over its satellite offices — one in Montreal, one in Quebec City and another they’re planning to open in Saskatchewan. The party maintains that the offices are an effort to do outreach and “get out of the Ottawa bubble,” but the Liberals suggest the NDP is using House of Commons resources to do party work and prepare for the next election campaign.

Liberal MP Scott Andrews last week requested that the Board of Internal Economy investigate the matter, stating that “all of this together is a disturbing pattern of possible use of Parliamentary resources for party activities.”

In the House of Commons yesterday, in response to a question from the NDP’s Nycole Turmel, the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary Paul Calandra turned the tables and hit back at the opposition over the offices.

“At the same time, we have an opposition party that is using parliamentary resources across this country to support Members of Parliament in provinces where they have no Members of Parliament. They have a lot to answer for over there,” he said.